Article ID: CBB000954801

Material Souls and Imagination in Late Aristotelian Embryology (2010)

unapi

This article explores some continuities between Late Aristotelian and Cartesian embryology. In particular, it argues that there is an interesting consilience between some accounts of the role of imagination in trait acquisition in Late Aristotelian and Cartesian embryology. Evidence for this thesis is presented using the extensive biological writings of the Padua-based philosopher and physician, Fortunio Liceti (1577-1657). Like the Cartesian physiologists, Liceti believed that animal souls are material beings and that acts of imagination result in material images that can be transmitted by means of medical spirits to the embryo. Moreover, while the Cartesian embryologists accepted such a view in a quite speculative way, one finds penetrating criticism of imagination theories of trait acquisition in the Late Aristotelian tradition. Evidence for this thesis is presented using the no less extensive biological writings of Liceti's contemporary, Emilio Parisano (1567-1643). In conclusion, the Late Aristotelian tradition itself provides the theoretical tools for excising immaterial formative forces from embryology and at the same time evinces a much more acute sense for the problems inherent in imagination theories of trait acquisition than the Cartesian tradition.

...More

Description On the continuities between Late Aristotelian and Cartesian embryology, especially concerning the biological writings of Fortunio Liceti (1577-1657) and Emilio Parisano (1567-1643).


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000954801/

Similar Citations

Book Oreste Trabucco; (2022)
Aristotelismo, libertinismo, erudizione nell'Italia del Seicento (/isis/citation/CBB115083362/)

Article Blank, Andreas; (2013)
Fortunio Liceti on Mind, Light, and Immaterial Extension (/isis/citation/CBB001320399/)

Article Blank, Andreas; (2013)
Fortunio Liceti on Mind, Light, and Immaterial Extension (/isis/citation/CBB001213905/)

Article Ablondi, Fred; (2007)
Knowing Our Nature: A Note on Régis' Response to Malebranche (/isis/citation/CBB000760671/)

Article Boyle, Marjorie O'Rourke; (2013)
Aquinas's Natural Heart (/isis/citation/CBB001200790/)

Chapter Smith, Justin E. H.; (2008)
Spirit as Intermediary in Post-Cartesian Natural Philosophy (/isis/citation/CBB000952947/)

Book Ott, Walter R.; (2009)
Causation and Laws of Nature in Early Modern Philosophy (/isis/citation/CBB001033000/)

Essay Review Domenico Collacciani; (2018)
A Contextualist History of Cartesian Philosophy: Roger Ariew's Descartes and the First Cartesians (/isis/citation/CBB018190213/)

Article Denis, Gilles; (2011)
The Optical Galilean Interpretation of the Antique Theophrastian Model for Plant Diseases (/isis/citation/CBB001450796/)

Article Meschini, Franco Aurelio; (2018)
Esitazioni cartesiane: embriologia e anti-finalismo (/isis/citation/CBB100646074/)

Chapter Ruler, Han van; (2008)
Substituting Aristotle: Platonic Themes in Dutch Cartesianism (/isis/citation/CBB000760516/)

Book Bakker, Paul J. J. M.; Thijssen, Johannes M. M. H.; (2007)
Mind, Cognition and Representation: The Tradition of Commentaries on Aristotle's De anima (/isis/citation/CBB001020173/)

Book Dalma Frascarelli; (2016)
L'altro Seicento: arte a Roma tra eterodossia, libertinismo e scienza (/isis/citation/CBB699794623/)

Article Blank, Andreas; (2013)
Henry More on Spirits, Light, and Immaterial Extension (/isis/citation/CBB001320854/)

Article Leen Spruit; (2017)
Sebastiano Bartoli on Life and the Soul (/isis/citation/CBB245646731/)

Authors & Contributors
Hirai, Hiro
Blank, Andreas
Spruit, Leen
Frascarelli, Dalma
Guidi, Simone
Collacciani, Domenico
Concepts
Philosophy
Soul (philosophy)
Cartesianism
Aristotelianism
Natural philosophy
Light
Time Periods
17th century
16th century
Renaissance
Medieval
18th century
15th century
Places
Italy
France
Rome (Italy)
Padua (Italy)
Naples (Italy)
Netherlands
Institutions
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment